PICTURE BOOK
SCIENCE
Adaptations Plant
Shallow Roots, Thick Stalks, and Poison
Andi Diehn
Illustrated by Lex Cornell
Adaptations Plant
Shallow Roots, Thick Stalks, and Poison
Andi Diehn
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ISBN Softcover: 978-1-64741-127-5
ISBN Hardcover: 978-1-64741-124-4
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Why does a seedling grow up and its roots grow down?
Why do maple leaves change color and turn brown?
Why does a cactus have sharp spiky spines?
Why does a rainforest have lots of vines?
From tiny seed to towering tree, Plants changed, evolutionarily!
Adapting to environments hot and cold, To when rain was scarce, when water flowed.
Plants endured, thrived, and stayed alive, Changing form and behavior so the species survived.
And now we have plants of all shapes and sizes. What’s growing in your garden?
Do you have plants where you live?
A spider plant in your living room?
A snake plant on the windowsill?
Bushes in the backyard?
All of these plants have adaptations that help them survive.
How did the plant say goodbye?
“I MUST BE LEAF-ING NOW!”
Have you ever seen a saguaro cactus?
Maybe you’ve seen a picture or visited the Sonoran Desert! That’s where saguaro cactuses grow—where the air is hot, the soil is sandy, and the sun beats down almost every day of the year.
Saguaros have adapted to that climate.
Their skin has a thick, waxy coating that keeps moisture from escaping. Their roots are shallow, so rainwater doesn’t have to travel far to reach them. And those sharp bristles keep other desert creatures from feeding on them. Ouch!
Put a saguaro cactus in a rainforest and it probably wouldn’t thrive.
But in the desert, it can live for hundreds of years!
How do saguaros know to grow this way? Did they read the instruction manual? Did they look it up at the library? NO! THEY ADAPTED! What is a snowman’s favorite type of vegetable? A SNOWPEA!
So, what is adaptation?
Adaptation means gaining characteristics to better survive in an environment. It takes a looooooong time.
Some plants—such as the saguaro cactus— have developed traits that let them live in the hot dryness of the desert.
Plants with features that help them survive live long enough to pass down these characteristics to their offspring.
Because the offspring have the same characteristics as their parents, they are also the ones to survive.
As years pass, the characteristics that don’t help with survival appear less often.
Let’s look at more examples of adaptation.